Hiring & Team Building

Contractor vs. Employee: What Actually Determines the Right Call

A founder I know classified a worker as a contractor for over a year because it was simpler administratively, no payroll taxes, no benefits...

Should Your First Hire Be a Generalist or a Specialist?

I hired a specialist first, a genuinely skilled designer, when what my business actually needed was someone capable of handling design, basic...

The Interview Question That Predicted Performance Better Than Any Other

I used to ask candidates to describe their greatest strength and weakness, walk me through their resume, and explain why they wanted the job....

Why Your Best Employee Just Quit (And It Probably Wasn’t the Money)

My strongest employee gave notice on a Tuesday morning, and my first instinct was to immediately calculate whether I could counter with more money....

The First Hire Mistake That Almost Every Founder Makes

I hired my first employee to take work off my plate, which sounds reasonable until I admit what actually happened. I hired someone to do the parts of...

How to Write a Job Post That Actually Filters for Fit

My first job posting generated 94 applications and exactly two people worth interviewing. Not because good candidates weren’t out there, but...

Firing Your First Employee: What Nobody Prepares You For

I put off firing my first genuinely poor-fit employee for nearly four months past the point I’d honestly known it needed to happen, hoping the...

How to Give Feedback When You’ve Never Been Trained to Manage

I avoided giving direct feedback to my first employee for nearly two months, letting a recurring mistake continue simply because I didn’t know...

The 30-60-90 Onboarding Plan That Doesn’t Require an HR Department

My first employee’s entire onboarding consisted of a single sentence: “just ask if you have questions.” She did ask questions,...

Delegation for People Who’ve Never Managed Anyone

I handed my first employee a task with what I genuinely believed were clear instructions, checked back two hours later, and found something...